JERUSALEM, May 30 (Reuters) - Leaders of Israel's governing Kadima party plan to meet in as little as a week to decide on internal primaries that could replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, senior Kadima members said on Friday.

Olmert has so far defied a demand by his main coalition partner, Defence Minister Ehud Barak's left-leaning Labour Party, to leave office over a growing corruption scandal.

Lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, the head of Kadima's central committee, told Israel Radio that Kadima delegates would hold the meeting after Olmert returns from a visit to the United States at the end of next week.

Kadima sources said Olmert wants his centrist party to put off any primaries for months, hoping to ride out the police investigation into allegations he accepted envelopes filled with cash from a Jewish-American businessman.

Olmert has denied wrongdoing but has said he would resign if indicted. (Reporting by Joseph Nasr and Adam Entous; editing by Richard Balmforth)

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